He caught the fainter trail of the courier who had delivered the data while he and Thea were showering. The pale coldness of the dragon’s essence told him it had been a Blue, but not one with a large reserve of power. The trail stopped at their building so the dragon had probably remained in human form and gone into the city for the evening to replenish his energy.
Aurik flew for hours, hoping to exhaust himself enough that he could have a dreamless sleep, and hoping Thea would be gone when he returned so he wouldn’t have to endure her disappointed glances. He began to distract himself by flying slightly lower, breathing an extra cloak of obscuring magic around himself, and skimming along above the streets, low enough to catch the ebb and flow of sustaining magic that existed as a web around the city, connecting all the living creatures to each other, particularly the humans. He enjoyed catching the pull of lust that was so prevalent, finding the threads that tugged hardest, catching a little taste of each one and enjoying the different impressions he got of the interaction transpiring between the individuals involved. If humans only knew how vibrant those threads were. How strong and undeniable the connections. He wondered if there would be so much despair.
A brighter thread than the others appeared, the shimmering filament of it like a dazzling line of fire. He followed it, curious if there could be others like Thea and Dimitri in this city. The thread didn’t seem to have a strong connection, however, the end of it trailing in the air as though caught in a strong breeze. The loose end of it tickled, causing a quiver of energy to race over his scales.
He followed it to its origin—the high balcony of a hotel not far from his home. The doors were open, the summer breeze catching the drapes and causing them to billow into the dark room. The thread grew even brighter, seeming to fan out into a knotted mesh as it reached its source. He reached the balcony and shifted silently, watching the shadows of the interior and listening, curious about the person who alone could have a thread of energy that reached so far.
Her scent hit him a second later and he went rigid. Thea’s lovely jasmine aroma lingered in the doorway, evidence that she had stood on this balcony not more than an hour ago. It was no wonder he’d been drawn to her. Thea’s pull was the strongest he’d experienced, but he’d first felt it while she was in a state of high arousal.
Aurik listened from the shadows outside her doors, but could only hear her deep, steady breathing. He shouldn’t intrude on her sleep, but the draw of her was too strong. He took a step past the threshold, paused, and walked into the room. Thea appeared peaceful as she slept, but the web of magic around her tingled against his skin, arousing him. He wondered if she were dreaming, and if so, of what?
She had kicked the downy covers off in her sleep, her creamy skin caught the light that filtered in from her open balcony doors. She slept nude, which somehow surprised him. As uninhibited as she had been earlier that night, she struck him as more practical and a little reserved. His palm itched with the urge to touch her and his groin throbbed with arousal. He could wake her with a breath, use his magic to seduce her. But the euphoria his breath induced would be an artificial emotion. And if he ever made love to her again, it would be to experience the dual pull of her and Dimitri together so he could drown himself in the depths of the magic they produced.
He turned to leave, but stopped short at the sound of a soft sigh from behind him. Thea had shifted and rolled onto her back. Her eyes were still closed, her face turned away from him, but her body seemed more awake. The pull of the magic grew stronger, the web of it flickering around him as her hands moved. Aurik stood mesmerized in place, unable to take his eyes off her while she touched herself.
His palms ached even more at the sight of her hands clutching both her breasts, tugging at her tight nipples until she sighed again at the pleasure. Her thighs rubbed together, then parted. Her fertile aroma reached him with the force of a bolt.
Aurik inhaled sharply, the scent of her rocking him back.
Thea abruptly opened her eyes wide and sat up. “Who’s there?” Her words hit his ears as he launched himself through the balcony doors and shifted in mid-air, cloaking himself with magic in the process.
Chapter 6
T
hea stared out into the darkness beyond her balcony, confused as hell. She clenched her eyes shut and opened them again. The disorienting pleasure of her dream still lingered, making her think the sense of being watched had to have been part of the dream, too. And she
had
been watched in the dream. Aurik’s honey-tinted gaze had been all over her while Dimitri and Aurin shared her. Dimitri had been fucking her from behind while Aurin attended her from the front, reciprocating what Thea had done to her earlier that day. Only the Twins’ eyes had begun to glow partway through. Aurin’s gaze grew brighter when Dimitri removed his cock and let Aurin slip an impossibly long and agile tongue deep into Thea’s pussy.
She had the sense that they were preparing her for Aurik. Working her up so that her climax was even more powerful once he took her. The dream had faded when she was on the precipice and she’d begun touching herself to chase it, easily imagining Aurik taking over, replacing his sister’s acrobatic tongue with his own, thicker, stronger and more insistent one. She longed to have him like this, and to have Dimitri once again after all this time. She had always loved for him to take her from behind with Alex inside her from the front, but there was something wholly exotic about Aurik that compelled her even more than Dimitri or his brother had. As though Aurik’s mere touch could set her off.
Thea fell back into her pillows with a frustrated huff. What was the point? The fool said he was leaving and it didn’t take a genius to see neither his sister nor Dimitri were particularly happy about it. Thea just wished she knew exactly why. Splitting up with Dimitri after his brother’s death had left them both at the end of their ropes. That she had ultimately been the one to push him away still ate at her. Now he had finally worked his way back to something good—something phenomenal, if she were being honest—and that knowledge had somehow let her feel absolved of her own part in his despair when they had parted.
She could see the sadness and uncertainty in Dimitri’s eyes that night when he’d looked at Aurik. Dimitri and Aurin had shared similar glances that Thea knew well the meaning of. Would they survive together without Aurik?
Knowing it was a futile task to try to fix their relationship without knowing all the details, Thea shifted her thinking to the project she’d been hired for. She’d been tasked to track down a bloodline more than five centuries old with multiple gaps in the documentation of the lineage. The process of it excited her more than anything. More interesting, however, was how excited Dimitri and Aurin seemed to be when they’d skimmed through Erika’s data the night before and watched Thea point out the obvious details she could anchor her research on. Family names were one thing, but locales were another, particularly if they were small towns that had an active church, or at least a library of archives.
She’d decided to begin the next day, and stick to her guns when it came to her insistence that Dimitri let her run with it. His eagerness to be involved amused her, but she couldn’t deal with the distraction of him if she were going to get this done in a timely fashion.
His attentiveness the night before had affected her nearly as much as Aurik’s lovemaking. That old longing had returned and with it the constant stream of memories of how happy they had been at the beginning. A reflection of that happiness must have existed between Dimitri and these Twins, and it made her heart ache for him to be a witness to it crumbling. Maybe when she returned from Rouen in a week or so, she would have it out with Aurik. Make him tell her everything and point out to him what a fool he was being. Dimitri deserved to be happy, even if she couldn’t be a part of it. She didn’t know Aurik well enough to know whether she ought to blame him. She definitely couldn’t bring herself to hate a man she knew so little about, but if he didn’t come to his senses and broke Dimitri’s heart she most definitely could hate him then.
She dozed off again filled with self-righteous anger at the man she’d earlier been in the midst of a luscious fantasy about fucking. The anger was almost as satisfying a feeling.
***
Aurik held the bit of lace to his nose, enjoying the soft texture. Even after going through a wash and dry cycle, Thea’s scent still lingered.
“Where did you get those?” Dimitri asked, pushing past to start a fresh load. “Don’t tell me you’ve discovered the joys of cross dressing. I can’t quite picture you in a bra and panties, but if it gets you off…”
Aurik crumpled the panties in his fist and shoved them into his pocket. “Thea left them. I was going to give them back to her today.”
“Well, that’ll be a challenge seeing as she’s in Rouen for the next week, following up on a lead.” Dimitri eyed him curiously. “She’s gotten under your skin somehow, hasn’t she?” He seemed almost excited about the prospect.
“No.” Aurik lied. “It’s just fascinating to meet another human with as strong a draw to the magic as you have. I can’t help but wonder what’s so special about the two of you. Why aren’t more humans like that?”
Dimitri turned on the washer cycle and looked him over. “It might have something to do with you. With dragons, I mean. In the temple I remember Kris talking about how it was our destiny to be there. Thea and my brother were supposed to go, but it all changed after Alex died. Maybe she was meant to meet you. I mean, there
were
two of you, and only one of me.”
Aurik shook his head. “By that logic, all the others should be like you, too. I didn’t get that impression from Camille or Erika or any of the others. They don’t have any more draw than a normal human. As for it being your destiny, I’d like to point out that Kris didn’t obey the laws any more than we did, choosing to mate with a Court dragon without Council approval. The pairings never added up to begin with.”
“They might have if Thea and Alex had gone. They didn’t, so their spot was taken by Hallie. One person. I have no doubt she was meant to be there, too.” Dimitri patted the front pocket of Aurik’s pants. “Listen, we can argue destiny until we’re blue in the face, but you’re lousy at keeping secrets. If you’re into her, just say so. It would solve all our problems, you know.”
“If I did, it would introduce new ones. I don’t want to fight with my sister over either of you.”
Dimitri’s face hardened. “Giving up is a lousy fucking alternative, and I know Aurin agrees even though she hasn’t said as much out loud,” he said as he stalked out of the small room.
Aurik wanted to tell him that he had a better alternative in mind already, but couldn’t say so without ensuring Thea would agree to it. And he couldn’t stand the idea of the argument that would come if he had them all in the room at the same time when that happened. He regretted having to break their own unspoken rules, as well as the pact he had made with his sister when they were awakened, but he saw no other way.
***
He agonized over it for the rest of the week, finally concluding that he had to leave before Dimitri and his sister knew and had a chance to object to the idea. He just hoped Thea would be too surprised by his confession to do anything but accept. The shock of such knowledge tended to render humans either entirely terrified and in denial, or eager to know more. He had a strong feeling Thea was the type who preferred knowledge over ignorance.
In his true form and at full size, Aurik could fly faster than the average car could drive. It was a straight shot between Paris and Rouen, though he would normally prefer the scenic route along the winding turns of the river. Getting there quickly would serve him best. He would leave that night, then hopefully be beyond his sister’s reach by the time she and Dimitri found out he had gone.
The flight took even less time than he expected. Halfway through the valley, the unmistakable pull of Thea’s energy reached him, as though even from more than a hundred kilometres she reached out to them. Was it Dimitri she wished for? Knowing their history, that had to be the case. Dimitri’s suggestion that she was fated for him somehow seemed absurd. Thea, Dimitri, and Alex had been a unit, and Aurik couldn’t imagine how any of the dragons of the Court could have asserted themselves in the middle of a trio that tight. He assumed Dimitri’s brother must have been like him as well. Three such potent wells of energy would have been able to command the dragons. Perhaps Geva could have absorbed their energy easily, but it would have taken more than one dragon to avoid wasting any of it. The thought crossed his mind that one of them could easily have awakened a Queen. Speculation was pointless now, however. The team had awakened them all, regardless of the lack of a perfectly equitable match, at least on his part.
He disagreed with the Council on that point, but there was nothing to be gained by arguing. When such an ephemeral ruling body made its decree, they tended not to invite further discussion. Either he followed their laws or they would come back later with an even heavier hand, and he couldn’t risk either his sister or Dimitri being caught in the crossfire.
Aurik found himself growing eager the closer he got to Thea. To have this weight lifted would be a relief. He was more and more certain with each stretch and pull of his wings through the air that his sister and Dimitri would understand and agree with him. He did feel some regret that he hadn’t told them first, but it was too late to turn back.
It was near midnight when he followed Thea’s trail through the cobbled streets of the village. He landed in a darkened churchyard and shifted, clothing himself in modern garments before approaching the small hotel where she must be lodging for the week. Her energy was less potent than it had been before, but still easy enough for Aurik’s attuned senses to follow.
He wished he could reach out to her mentally like he could with his sister. Being able to assess her mood before approaching her would have eased his anxiety over what he was about to do. Telling a human his secrets without the intention of marking them was against dragon law, but he would explain that detail to her and make sure she knew Aurin would have to handle that detail quickly.
He entered the small, but luxuriously appointed lobby of the hotel with purpose. The desk clerk smiled amiably as he walked past, giving the illusion that he belonged.
The web of human energy was strong in this small hotel. A murmuring couple walked through the lobby to the elevator, their own threads intermingled and tangled to the point he couldn’t differentiate. The man pushed the woman against the wall and whispered into her ear, his words eliciting a throaty laugh from her, and their energy pulsed brighter with the subsequent arousal.
Aurik felt himself becoming aroused merely by their proximity and waited to let them have the privacy of their own lift before pushing the button for himself. He could sense them as they traveled upward, the allure of the magic growing dimmer the further away they got. There were no threads seeking their way outward from that pair, either, so engrossed were they in each other, cocooned in their own desire.
Rather than hit the button for the floor of the room he’d been assigned, he hit the button for the sixth floor, the level he’d sensed Thea on. He had no plans to stay the night.
***
Thea smacked her hand down on her notes, frustrated. Something was missing. Some crucial detail left out of the information Dimitri had given her. She scoured through the files again. There were hundreds of subfolders on the small drive. Some contained scanned pages of illuminated texts. How Camille had managed to get those, she had no clue, but Thea was impressed with the woman’s translation skills. All except for one particular passage. It was almost as though it had been overlooked, and the poor attention to detail in that particular spot was inconsistent with how thorough all the other translations had been.
She’d managed to trace the family’s lineage backward at first, to ensure she was following the right paths going forward from the point in time Camille had left off. The focus of names shifted every few generations, when a female descendant would marry and take her husband’s name. She’d followed the family from Germany to France and was now stuck, trying to figure out what this impossibly obscure language meant. All she had to go on were the images in the margins of the scanned page on the thumb drive. Roses. Red roses coiled around the edges of the page and around some circular emblem at the top, a medallion with six dragons entwined within, that she’d seen repeated on many of the other images. She wasn’t after that image, but couldn’t shake the feeling it was significant to her search somehow.
She cursed, the feeling that she’d been deliberately left in the dark over this whole project returning even stronger than before.
“What the fuck are you keeping from me, Dimitri?” she muttered, her words almost obscuring the knock at her door. She checked her watch trying to remember if she’d ordered room service. She had forgotten to eat but couldn’t remember if that detail had already crossed her mind. Work tended to take precedence over all else when she had her teeth sunk deep enough in such a meaty project as this one was.
When she opened the door, it took her a moment to register what she was seeing. His hair hung in shining waves to his shoulders, framing the too-perfect golden features of his face. His trimmed goatee caught the hallway light, making it seem to glow against the darker tan of his skin. And those eyes, God, she still couldn’t get them out of her mind.
She was simultaneously more frustrated at the sight of him and aroused at the memory of their lovemaking. She stood gaping at him, torn between punching him and kissing him. His bearing and serious expression suggested neither option would be the right one, however, so she merely stood back wordlessly and let him enter.
“Aurik. What are you doing here?” She checked the hallway, but he appeared to be alone.
“I need a favor,” he said. “It’s about what I told you last week.”
She raised a brow. “You mean about you leaving?”
Aurik nodded and swiped a hand nervously through his hair. The utter desperation on his face struck a chord deep inside her. Her ire settled slightly, her previous urge to wring his neck subsiding into mere agitated curiosity. She’d probably had a touch too much coffee to listen patiently to whatever he needed to talk to her about, so she went to the mini fridge and pulled out the bottle of wine she’d been saving for a moment when she chose to relax, something she’d promised herself she would do while she was there.